BBG Watch Commentary
Some Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) U.S. government employees who have have posted obscene memes and comments about Donald Trump on their Facebook pages, including images of him with a Nazi swastika and called him “F*ckface Von Clownstick,” are now afraid that the Voice of America (VOA), where they work at taxpayers expense, could become politicized under the Trump presidency.
These obscene memes and comments about Trump were posted by a few VOA journalists on their personal Facebook pages. While these are their private Facebook pages, they are, however, accessible to the public, and they identify themselves on Facebook as Voice of America employees. Their salaries are paid for by all U.S. taxpayers, including those who have voted for Donald Trump to be the next President of the United States.
According to an article in Politico, “President-elect Donald Trump is about to inherit a newly empowered Voice of America that some officials fear could serve as an unfettered propaganda arm for the former reality TV star who has flirted for years with launching his own network.”
READ MORE: Trump to inherit state-run TV network with expanded reach A provision tucked into the defense bill guts the Voice of America board, stoking fears that Trump could wield a powerful propaganda arm. By Tara Palmeri, Politico, December 12, 2016.
Under the watch of the bipartisan BBG Board, headed by Hollywood movie executive Jeff Shell, BBG CEO and director, former entertainment TV executive John F. Lansing, and Voice of America director Amanda Bennett, the Voice of America posted online a foreign language a video in which Donald Trump was called “punk,” “dog,” “pig,” “con,” “buls**t artist,” “mutt,” “idiot,” “fool,” “bozo,” and “blatantly stupid.” without attaching a rebuttal or a response of any kind.
The VOA anti-Trump hit video was subsequently removed after critics pointed it out, but other partisan, VOA initiated or VOA posted, one-sided (without a response or countervailing opinions) attacks on Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and even Senate Democratic leader Senator Harry Reid, can still be found on the Voice of America websites and social media pages.
Perhaps BBG and VOA officials who expressed fears that the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the Voice of America might become politicized in the future should have worried about it earlier.
Perhaps they also have a reasonable fear that the Trump administration might not look kindly on their job performance.
1 comment
…this is called consistency. People who saw Trump as a nascent fascist before the elections, now see all the signs, including his unhealthy attitude towards media, that he will abuse VOA.
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